A coalition of public employee unions Tuesday filed their long-awaited lawsuit seeking to overturn the pension reform measures passed late last year.

We Are One Illinois, which has fought pension reform for months, charged in the lawsuit that the reforms are an unconstitutional diminishment of pension benefits.

“The lawsuit makes clear that pension theft is not only unfair, but it’s clearly unconstitutional,” said Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan in a statement. “The legislature and governor shirked their responsibility to uphold the constitution, so we are seeking justice in court to right their wrongs.”

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Sangamon County, a day before Gov. Pat Quinn is scheduled to deliver his state of the state speech. In that speech, Quinn is expected to cite pension reform as a significant achievement in his administration.

The lawsuit lists as plaintiffs 25 active and retired members of the Teachers Retirement System, State Universities Retirement System and State Employees Retirement System. Like other lawsuits that have been filed, the plaintiffs say the pension changes will harm them and are not allowed under the state constitution.

However, unlike the other lawsuits, the union filing details just how much financial loss is faced by each of the plaintiffs and what parts of the pension reform plan are the cause.

“Those plaintiffs who are current employees teach our children, care for the sick and disabled, protect us from harm and perform myriad other essential services for Illinois and its citizens,” the lawsuit says. “Those plaintiffs who already have retired similarly dedicated their careers to the men, woman and children of Illinois. And each faithfully has contributed to his or her respective pension system the substantial portion of their paychecks the pension code requires.”

The pension reform law contains a number of changes that are designed to eliminate the state’s $100 billion pension debt and reduce the amount of state revenue needed to meet pension commitments. The largest component limits the annual raises in retirement benefits and skips them in some years. Other provisions raise the retirement age for those under age 45 and cap the amount of salary on which a pension can be earned.

In order to help it survive a court challenge, the law contains “consideration” for current employees. It reduces their pension contribution by 1 percentage point.

The lawsuit contends that is inadequate.

“The state has not offered the representative plaintiffs or class members consideration that would justly compensate them for the impairment and diminishment of their pension benefits,” it says.

We Are One Illinois is composed of a number of unions representing public employees, including the Illinois AFL-CIO, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Education Association, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union.

Page 2 of 2 - Three other lawsuits have been filed so far, all contending the pension reform law is unconstitutional. A group of TRS members filed suit in Cook County. That was followed by the Retired State Employees Association and the Illinois State Employees Association Retirees, who both filed suits in Sangamon County.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office has filed a motion asking that all of the lawsuits be consolidated and heard in Cook County. The filing says the “predominant legal and factual questions in all of … the cases is the same.”

A similar situation arose when multiple lawsuits were filed challenging the law allowing the state to impose premiums on retiree health insurance. Those cases, which were consolidated in Sangamon County, are awaiting a Supreme Court decision.